Every article about Star Trek Online is going to discuss the character creator. Cryptic is justly famous for the extreme customization it allows in its games. In City of Heroes, designing a hero (or villain) was a game in itself. Champions Online took that one step further, allowing you unprecedented ability to customize your powers as well. Star Trek Online has the challenge to allow you room to express your creativity, yet still keep you and your ship recognizably part of Starfleet (or the Klingon Empire).
Human
Andorian
Bajoran
Benzite
Betazoid
Bolian
Saurian
Trill
Vulcan
Your choice of race is more-or-less cosmetic. Each race has a couple of racial attributes (humans have innate leadership, while Betazoids are all empaths and telepaths), but the very next screen allows you to choose a couple of attributes of your own. Want to be lucky, devious, in tune with warp fields or whatever? Go for it.
Previous to the most recent patch, Ferengi was a valid race selection, but that’s gone. I couldn’t figure out how Ferengi had joined the Federation while Bajor was still struggling with admittance. Turns out the Federation is giving Ferengi dual citizenship, which they’ve probably already learned to regret.
If you don’t find a race you like, you can define your own, with as crinkly a forehead as you can imagine.
Weird how every alien species are obviously mammalian….
At level 6, or after you complete the mission “Stop the Signal” (described in the previous post), you’ll be able to create a loyal member of the Klingon Empire. They have their own selection of races….
Klingon
Gorn
Lethean
Naussican
Orion
After a few missions, the Borg invasion is defeated and you get the chance to return to Starbase Alpha and relax.
While there, why not customize your rather plain looking ship with the fittings YOU want, along with a custom paint job, decals and so forth? There’s a limit to what you can do to your newbie ship – advanced ships allow you more options for customization.
In the big fleet battles, where ships are gathered together at the warp-in point, it’s fun to look around and see what people have done with their ships.
Next post, I’ll talk about what you can do with your ship when I go over Basic Spaceflight.